The project portal and repository for the upcoming Version 3 release of Transform SWF is now hosted on (the greatly improved) SourceForge, http://sourceforge.net/projects/transform-swf/ Currently the repository only contains version 3.0 code but a branch will be added for the current 2.x code-base in the near future.

Most of the development work for version 3 is now complete. In addition to supporting Flash 8/9 features, most of the effort (and hence most of the delay) has been in refactoring the code to improve the design and boost performance as well as constructing a comprehensive suite of unit and acceptance tests. The to-do list contains the following:

Finish support for Flash 8/9 – only filters and font alignment are remaining.

Refactor the utilities classes to improve the design and make testing easier.

Replace remaining integer constants with enums.

Finish the suite of unit and acceptance tests.

You can find more detailed information on the current milestones and tasks at http://apps.sourceforge.net/trac/transform-swf/. I have also created a micro-blog for the project, http://apps.sourceforge.net/laconica/transform-swf/ where I will be posting quick (and frequent) updates of what is being worked on and what is left to do.

The code is now reasonably stable so if you want to browse, http://transform-swf.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/transform-swf/ or check it out https://transform-swf.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/transform-swf/trunk feel free to do so.

The Cookbook has been reorganised and updated with lots more examples. This update contains lots of material to help you get started using Transform and Translate, with sections covering Flash concepts, introductory examples showing how to use the classes to generate Flash files and a list of HowTos covering basic animation techniques.

Future updates with contain more detailed recipes on how to display different types of object along with more advanced examples.

It’s late, really late. Originally scheduled for the start of this year the release has dragged on and on. The principal cause of the delay has been simply a lack of time available to work on the code due other projects and supporting the existing codebase. The new web site took a lot of time to get it to the stage it is now, along with putting together the developer portals and getting the projects hosted with a more integrated tool set that makes things easier to track.

With the excuses out of the way, work on the project will resume this month, if not this week and the release should be out in the next couple of months. You can find the code in the Developer Portal repository, http://svn.codespaces.com/flagstone/transform-java/branches/3-0-dev. It is currently not stable and support for Flash 8+ is not added but you will be able to keep track of the changes that are being made. I will also post updates here as the work progresses.

After much organizing and re-organizing the web site now has a simpler and cleaner layout which should make it easier to use. The main site now focuses on providing information on the frameworks and downloading the latest release along with a new Cookbook which provides information on how to use Transform and Translate. All the developer related information: release history, release notes, repository information, task lists and milestones are now located in a separate Developer Portals hosted by CodeSpaces.

The Cookbook is designed to provide more information than the simple set of examples that have been available to date. More complex examples, how-tos and general information about Flash will be added in the future.

There are two Developer Portals, one for the Java versions of the code and the other for the C++ versions. If all you want to do is get the latest release and find out how to use the frameworks then you can safely ignore the developer portals – everything you should need can be found on the main site. The portals are geared towards developers contributing to the projects or to find out whether a bug has been reported or fixed.